Steve Cross wrote: > Mr. Atherton's factual assertions are substantially at odds > with those who in Prospect Park who observed them.
Yep. I certainly can't deny that my factual assertions are at odds with others in Prospect Park. Indeed, my factual assertions are almost always at odds with Mr. Cross'. You are free to choose to believe me, or Mr. Cross, neither of us or some combination there of. However, it might actually be more productive to discuss my suggestions for improving the NRP rather than tossing accusations around. > Mr. Atherton said: > > >In my neighborhood the NRP invested close to 50% of $3,000,000 in > >a school and community center that the School Board wanted to sell > >and $600,000 of it did go to Brighton. > > What Mr. Atherton, somehow, fails to mention is that while > the School Board did TRY to close Pratt School, it remains open > and the investment in it of $1,500,000 in neighborhood NRP funds > (and an untold amount of sweat by most of the neighborhood's members) > remains secure. Well, noting factually inaccurate here. I didn't mention that Pratt was still open because it's public knowledge to anyone who lives here or has followed the school closings. I also didn't bother to point out that PPERRIA had no long term contract with the District to keep Pratt from closing and without a lot of citizen lobbying and behind the scenes political maneuvering it might well have closed and the NRP could have kissed goodbye a $1,500,000 investment. Pratt is still the only traditional public elementary school in the district with fewer than 100 students. Which is more a credit to Prospect Park's political connections than it's educational value. > And what he also fails, somehow to mention is that the investment that > went to Brighton resulted in the removal of a derelict light-industrial > building and several collapsing houses and their replacement with a > modern and successful town-home development and the award-winning > restoration of an historic neighborhood house. And, as long as I'm > defending the neighborhood, I'll also defend Brighton. Any > neighborhood that finds Brighton interested in developing in their > neighborhood can count themselves as very fortunate. I worked with Brighton > and found them easy to work personally with an interested in working with > our > neighborhood. There willingness to work with us is testified to by the > same development that Mr. Atherton impliedly bad-mouths in > his post. Brighton had completed the plans for the development of the > property when the opportunity presented itself to move a house to one > of the lots and restoring it. Brighton could have easily, and > correctly, have said, "Our plans are complete, sorry." Instead, they > invested personal time to change their plans to allow the house to be moved > and restored. Opps. Noting factually inaccurate here either. I didn't imply anything about Brighton, other than when Mr. Graham implies that the NRP solves the problem of government subsidies being granted to developers he's dead wrong. Brighton received a $600,000+ subsidy from PPERRIA for the Bedford townhomes without a formal competitive bidding process. > Just as Mr. Atherton is not correct in his regular disparagement of the > people who live in his own neighborhood, he is also not correct in his > disparagement of Brighton Development. I don't have an opinion about Brighton one way or the other. I have very strong opinions about giving subsidies to developers without competitive bids and I also have strong opinions about some of the people who live in my own neighborhood, Mr. Cross among them. > >The problem is that we have no way of knowing how much of > >this money was squandered and how much of it ended up back > >in the hands of people making decisions, because there are > >no real checks and balances for NRP processes. > > I really, really, resent this. The imputation of people > making personal self-dealing profits out of the NRP program > is just outrageous! Mr. Cross can resent this as much as he likes. We're ain't living in Mayberry. In the last few years we've had two city council members convicted for crimes related to a lack of integrity for sums involving significantly less than $600,000. > PPERRIA's books are open as are NRP's records. And all > years that we expended NRP money were audited by Minnesota's > state auditor. And all those audits are available for public > inspection. (It needs to be noted that for some of the years > in question that Mr. Atherton was on the PPERRIA Board of > Directors. And, for those years the State Auditor mailed > him his own personal copies of the audits. (This was not a > personal favor to Mr. Atherton. It's SOP for the Auditor to > mail copies of audits to the Board of Directors. That's because > it's any Board's duty to clean things up if problems are found.) > You can be sure that had anything untoward been found by the > State Auditor, that Mr. Atherton would be the first to be waiving > the audits like a bloody flag. It also needs to be pointed out > that in the past few weeks that Mr. Atherton requested copies > of all audits and they were made available to him -- > including the years prior to when he was on PPERRIA's Board. > Again, had the audits even hinted at there being anything wrong -- > including the self-dealing that Mr. Atherton accuses us of -- > that you would have heard about it in his most recent postings.) Okay, noting factually inaccurate here on my part either. I haven't accused Mr. Cross or anyone of any illegality. My argument is that the NRP lacks the necessary safeguards to prevent illegal self- dealing. > There are other, lesser, problems with what Mr. Atherton has > to say. However, I'm sure that the tone of all of his prior > posts provide adequate reason to disregard everything he has to say. Ah, here's the Disgruntled Employee Spin again. As usual Mr. Cross fails to detail his accusations and says that you should judge the veracity of my statements based on my "tone." Well, I think you should judge the veracity of Mr. Cross' accusations on their truth value, as best you can determine it. Maybe we could discuss my suggestions for reforming the NRP rather than focusing on the personal. Michael Atherton Prospect Park REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
